For the past couple of weeks the Australian ABC local radio's 1:45am book reading has been the brilliant "Fever at Dawn" by Peter Gardos. I've been half-listening to the nightly book reading for years while doing stuff on the computer, but this one has me completely stopping whatever I am doing so I can go & sit on my bed to listen for the next 15 minutes. I was crying halfway through the first evening's quarter-hour reading. I don't know how the book finishes yet (Miklos is still trying to meet Lili in person), so please don't post any spoilers!

Why have I mentioned Fever at Dawn? Because (so far) not only it has shown the terrible & inhumane things that happen when prejudice & hatred take over civilised society, but it has also shown how love, tolerance, acceptance & hope can help heal even the most traumatised of people. To hear the descriptions of the care & love given to the 224 concentration camp survivors by the people of Sweden after the war just makes me wonder, why can't we all be as accepting of the minorities, marginalised & disenfranchised among us?

Why do so many people have to hate/dislike/fear those who aren't like them? It doesn't make the world a better place. It doesn't improve society. It negatively affects the economy as people are not given full opportunity to reach their potential. It impacts the health system through the depression & other mental illnesses that come with being a constant recipient of abuse & prejudice. It increases crime (on both sides) as people start to take matters into their own hands. It just doesn't make any sense at all, apart from some people being able to boast "my tribe's better than your tribe".

Tribalism (including religious tribalism) & nationalism - along with greed possibly the biggest killers of humans over the entire history of human civilisation. Well over 1 billion humans would have died on this planet prematurely through conflict caused by one group of people thinking they are superior to another group of people. When is it going to stop?

Jimmy Sharman's Boxers (live) - Midnight Oil A good one for anyone who loves the drums.

I don't care what people wear or do if they are not hurting anyone else. Who cares if they are straight or gay? Who cares if 2 men or 2 women kiss in public? We're not Iran or Saudi Arabia where all public affection is banned. Who cares if they like wearing skimpy clothing or look a bit rough? I grew up on Sydney's northern beaches - I'm used to seeing people in skimpy swimwear. Now I live in the city, I often see people in skimpy clothes heading out to the nightclubs. I do not condemn them; they are young people enjoying life (as they should be doing).

Who are we to judge others because they don't meet our personal behavioral or moral criteria?

A former boss of mine who was a great friend and also gay told me that the easiest way to spot a gay man who hasn't yet come out is to look for the man who is most terrified of gay people. Look for the man in the crowd who is anti-gay, and you have probably found another man who is gay (or at least a little curious).

Even modern scientific studies have shown that the more homophobic a man is, the more likely he is to become aroused when he sees a picture of a naked man.

I believe strongly in freedom & liberty of the individual. The government, religious groups & other busybodies should stay out of our private lives. That freedom & liberty includes sexual freedom.

Maybe we all just need to stop worrying so much about what others are doing & start looking at our own behaviours & attitudes.

Bread in Australia has come down in price at my local supermarket ($3.50AUD for some good quality loaves), so I could currently buy around 385 loaves with $1000USD.

But there is another price paid - most of the bread is now supplied under various brand names by just one manufacturer. A couple of small shelves might be allocated for premium alternative brands, but >90% of the bread on the shelves would be from just one company. 10 years ago there would be 3 or 4 different companies supplying bread to the major supermarkets, resulting in competition & fairly decent prices. After the 2 major supermarket chains in Australia changed to single suppliers the cost of bread did go as high as $5.30AUD per loaf (an attempt to force customers to switch to the basic store brand white bread which is full of big air pockets), but after a backlash from consumers & bad publicity the price of decent quality bread did get whittled down to something a bit more affordable.

A lot of clothing shops here in eastern Australia are suffering as they cleared out most of their Summer gear around the end of February (which is the end of Summer in this half of the world) & filled up their shops with Winter gear. But Autumn in Sydney has been AWOL this year - 3 months after the stores de-stocked their warm weather stuff we are still consistently getting days that are more like the last week of Summer. Sydney has had something like 130 days in a row over 20 degrees Celsius (68F), only 2 days in over 3 months have been below average temperature, and nights are noticeably up a few degrees too.

The stores full of Winter clothing are now assessing how early to start their clearance sales to make at least some cash before the tax year ends on June 30.

You guys in India & the rest of the subcontinental region have my sympathies. It seems like the heat you are enduring just goes on & on & on. Here in Sydney the hot spells in Summer only ever last a few days at most before we get a relieving cool change coming up the coast from the Southern Ocean. I don't know how you can bear the endless heat & humidity that is happening in your part of the world. Take care - I know that the heat is having serious health impacts, especially on the elderly, ill & young children who can get dehydrated very quickly.

Down here in Sydney we are 2 weeks from the official start of Winter (June 1st - we don't start seasons on the equinoxes/solstices). It has been an unusually warm & sunny Autumn. The deciduous trees in my street (mainly liquid ambers) should have shed all their leaves well over a month ago, but most still have a large proportion of green leaves mixed among the red & brown ones on the branches. At least my heating costs will be low this year

Right now, I am winding down & getting ready for a few hours sleep. Meant to go to bed about 5 hours ago, but instead got caught up in something I had problems letting go of. Now it is time for a few ZZZZs.

The trouble valerie is that forum visitors often don't know what the topic is about until they read the post. Stores going by the name of Target exist in many countries outside of the USA, and so a topic calling for a boycott of Target stores may gain the interest of anyone in a country where Target stores exist. That is why I, a person in Australia, clicked on the topic. I didn't expect to find the hysterical rantings & ravings of religious fundamentalism when I thought I would see why the Target at Bondi Junction in Sydney is the subject of a boycott call.

Also, how do we know if a topic is by someone we don't like if we have never visited one of their topics before? Is it up to all members to keep a private list of naughty & nice people on the forums that they can crosscheck before clicking on a topic? I certainly don't expect to read ill-informed & ignorant bigoted rubbish in what is supposed to be a site where anyone in the world is supposed to be welcome to visit to earn some money or place their advertising.

I just like earning a bit of money here without the added stress of encountering hateful or bigoted posts in a public forum (of which we are all required to visit if we want to get our daily activity bonus). There is enough ignorance & intolerance in the world already. Do we really need hysterical & completely ignorant calls for mob rule to be made here too? Why not leave that to political & conspiracy theorist sites instead? There are probably a million of those types of forums on the web for those inclined to choose from.

If the ClixSense forums are going to be "anything goes", then ClixSense should remove the requirement of visiting the forums in order to get the daily bonus. Alternatively, a warning should be placed on the general forum that it may contain offensive material and/or hate speech. I'm quite happy to opt out of participating in the forums if ClixSense will still pay me my daily bonus for completing my other activities.

And to those who say that the minorities are getting their way, you can blame the people who drew up the US constitution ~240 years ago for that. A good friend of mine who served in the USAF for several decades once posted in another forum that the constitution is not there to protect the majority from the minority. Rather, it is there to protect the minority from the majority. That is what freedom is all about. Ensuring that freedom is available to everyone, not just the largest portion of society. Do away with that, and you just have mob rule - a nation built on bullying. The USA is supposed to be better than that.

A sad loss... All of that amazing life-saving work done, and all he would have wanted for reward was a pat or a hug & something nice to eat.

Labradors are such beautiful dogs - I always feel especially sad when one passes on, because to me they are the epitome of a dog which loves life, loves to play, loves to serve, and is full of loyalty to his/her master (although that loyalty that can waver temporarily when someone else offers a tasty tidbit to eat).

R.I.P Max

You are aware the vast majority of those types of photos are taken of little boys by men & youths in male toilets?

Have you even met a transgender person? You seem to think that they go through that very tough decision to change their gender identity, and all the bigotry, abuse & discrimination that comes with it, just so they can take photographs of little girls on the toilet.

You don't need to watch out for the TG male-to-female wearing makeup & a skirt. She's much less likely to molest a child than a man in a business suit who is well respected by the community & held above any suspicion.

What a load of codswallop! And the ClixSense forums are not the place to wage a campaign against the civil rights of people who you have a religious gripe against!

Your use of the term "freaks" immediately destroyed your argument. Transgender people are not freaks.

The transgender people that I know are very careful that they do not do anything which may raise any concerns when they visit a washroom. They've copped enough prejudice over their lifetimes - they just want to able to take a pee in peace.

Social engineering is another idiotic term held up by people who hate everyone who is unlike them. The term is an insult to the intelligence. Are you really saying that the average American is so unintelligent, so stupid, that they cannot make up their own mind on issues & can be "engineered" into believing anything?

It should be remembered that the USA was largely settled by people escaping from bigotry & persecution. How the hell did the country become the one that it deliberately set out not to be?

Good point sp1915. It has been so many years since I last reported a post in any forum that I plain forgot I could do that

Those who choose to stand still on the path of progress will eventually finish up looking at everyone else's behind.

Shopping malls should have diversified, brought in more (free or affordable) non-retail attractions such as study & video game rooms with big screens & spectator areas to get young people in the door, free community events (talent shows with REAL prizes etc), and worked on ways to make themselves relevant to modern shoppers (being able to browse, compare & buy online from a terminal while in-store, combining of orders from different shops in the complex, free or low-cost delivery). Some of these things have been brought in at some malls, but way too late - shoppers have already changed their habits.

The same thing has happened here in Australia. The funny thing is that, a decade or so ago, many of the large malls brought in policies to make school students feel unwelcome after school, such as removing seated areas & having security move the young people on if they congregated in a group. The young people weren't spending enough. The mall owners did not think that these students would some day be earning real money & wanting to buy things. They should have been serenading these future adult shoppers instead of turning them away as irritations not to be endured. Those young people now buy online as they have memories of being told they are not welcome in shopping malls.

100% in agreement BouldRake. I just wonder why members such as ProAdCo are allowed to post & maintain topics which are intended to drive members who don't conform to their rigid religious views AWAY from ClixSense.

I don't care if the people visiting my promos are black, brown, white, yellow, purple, gay, straight, bi, transgender, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or anything else. I just want them to notice my promos & hopefully sign up or buy, no matter who they are. And I don't care about who is promoting to me.

What do I care about is that these topics being started by ProAdCo are making many members feel uncomfortable visiting or doing business with ClixSense, and are thus possibly reducing the reach of my & others' advertising at this site.

Really sad to log onto the forums today and see these terrible & hate-filled topics demonising LBGT people in the "Target Boycott" topics.

I thought ClixSense was a place for people from all over the world, of all religions, colors & even sexual orientations. It seems I was wrong. I didn't see anything in the T&C that only heterosexual people are welcome here.

If religious fundamentalism is going to take over these forums, then I will no longer be able to participate in or promote anything to do with ClixSense. ll my life I have been taught to fight against hatred, bigotry & small-mindedness. I now feel extremely uncomfortable dealing with this site.

I come here to earn money with a bit of a smile. I don't want this ill-informed hatred thrust at me.

ClixSense should be better than a purveyor of bigotry & religious intolerance.

Edit: It appears my concerns about the forums are currently being addressed. Thank-you to the Mods

What a hateful little act by small-minded people.

No wonder the rest of the world looks elsewhere for leadership these days. Oh well, if American people want to put more of their lowest-wage people out of work in order to make a fundamentalist religious point, I guess that is their choice. Sad for the working-class Americans who will lose their jobs though

Personally, I will be boycotting the sites of anyone who supports this bigoted boycott.

We should never let the cavemen win! We are Homo Sapiens, and we are better than that!

So much hatred in the world. Why can't people just get on with each other & accept those who may be different, but who are not doing them any harm?

Congratulations BISAYA! The task bonuses really do make a difference to your earnings.